


Popping a Question

by Lady_Ganesh



Category: Pushing Daisies
Genre: Gen, Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2007
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-25
Updated: 2007-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 11:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/pseuds/Lady_Ganesh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emerson Cod doesn't like to talk about his past. Written for ghost_lingering in Yuletide 2007.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Popping a Question

Emerson Cod did not like to talk about himself, much less about his childhood.

This didn't stop the others from asking.

"I remember when I was a kid, I was _obsessed_ with horses," Olive said merrily, placing a generous slice of raspberry pie before Emerson. "I was just horse crazy. What about you, Emerson, was there anything you were crazy about?"

"Not really," Emerson said, sliding a fork into his pie, and that was that.

"I've always liked Christmas lights. They look like little stars twinkling in the night, don't they?"

"Uh-huh," Emerson said dubiously.

Chuck wrapped her coat more tightly around herself. "Did you do anything special for Christmas, Emerson? Every Christmas morning, I'd wake up, and there'd be two snow angels in the yard; one for my mom and one for my dad. I guess one of my aunts must've done it, but they never told...."

"We're here," Emerson said, ending the conversation.

"The girls think you need to talk about yourself more," Ned said.

"I've noticed."

"You might want to avoid them for a while. Or start making things up. I've thought about that sometimes."

Emerson raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"I don't know. The lost year I spent at the circus. Something to keep them busy for while."

"They do have busy minds," Emerson observed wryly. "Now, this is all fascinating, but we do have a dead body waiting for us at the morgue."

"I know, I know," Ned said. "Let me get my coat."

That night, Emerson got out the scissors and glue. He didn't like to talk about his childhood because he didn't like to _think_ about his childhood. There wasn't any point in feeling sorry about the past. It only made him feel bad, and you couldn't make money from it.

There was one thing that Emerson could rely on when things were difficult, and although he usually disparaged imagination these days, in his heart he could never truly deny the pleasures he had drawn from fantasy.

Inside the three-dimensional world of a pop-up book, he could be somewhere else, _someone_ else entirely.

Emerson looked at his latest creation and smiled.

In a circus that never existed, three mermaids smiled from the crowd as Ned balanced on the high wire. Olive Snook guided a beautiful white horse around the ring, and in the corner, the ringmaster-- a man who bore a suspicious resemblance to one Emerson Cod-- smiled brilliantly.

It didn't pay the bills, but it was hard to find a better way to spend an evening than making pop-up books.


End file.
